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SOUTH KOREAN President Lee Jae Myung has called for urgent reforms to the nation’s digital privacy regulations after a massive data breach at e-commerce giant Coupang exposed the personal information of more than 33 million customers.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lee described the breach, which went undetected by Coupang for five months, as “astonishing” and warned that those responsible must be swiftly identified and held accountable.
“The wrong practice and the idea of not giving necessary care for personal data protection, which is a key asset in the age of artificial intelligence and digitalisation, must be completely changed,” Reuter cited Lee saying on Tuesday.
He ordered a review of fines and punitive damage compensation to ensure that penalties adequately reflect the severity of similar breaches in the future.
South Korean authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, which is considered the country’s worst data breach in over a decade. Coupang, founded in 2010 by Korean-American entrepreneur Bom Kim and backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, confirmed that customer names, email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers were compromised. The breach is believed to have begun in June, but the company only reported it to government authorities in November.
Lee stressed that the incident serves as a wake-up call for both corporations and regulators to prioritise the protection of digital assets.
“The responsible parties must be quickly identified and held responsible,” he said, signalling the government’s intention to tighten oversight of data handling practices across South Korea’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
The fallout from the breach has intensified scrutiny of e-commerce platforms and other digital service providers, highlighting the growing challenges of cybersecurity and data privacy in an era of accelerated digitalisation.
Coupang has issued an apology to affected customers and pledged to cooperate fully with the ongoing police investigation. - December 2, 2025